Six-way vehicle seat adjuster

ABSTRACT

A six-way vehicle seat adjuster having a motor driven worm driving two worm gears one of which is connected through two clutches to vertical adjusting mechanism at each end of the vehicle seat, and the other of which is connected through a clutch to mechanism for adjusting the seat fore and aft.

United States Patent 11 1 Pickles 154] SIX-WAY VEHICLE SEAT ADJUSTER[75] Inventor: Joeeph Pickles, Birmingham; Mich. [73 A s si gnee: "FrioManufacturing Corfidration;

' Detroit, Mich.

221 Filed: Nov. 19,1976

' 21 Appl. No.: 90,945

52 U.S.C1. ..248/394 511 1111.01 ..Fl6m 11/12 58 FielrlofSearch..248/394;74/801 [56] References Cited UNITED- STATES PATENTS 3,335,9958/1967 Pickles ..248/394 3,240,494 3/1966 Pickles ..24s/394x [4 1 Jan.23, 1973 3,330,523 7/1967 Nichols ..248/394 X 3,188,044 6/l965 Epple2,921,621 1/1960 Williams et a1....

1,396,426 Hartford ..74/80l Primary Examiner-William H. SchultzAtt0rneyWhittemore, Hulbert & Belknap 57 ABSTRACT 5 Claims, 13 DrawingFigures PATENTEDJAN 23 I975 3.712.573

SHEET 1 OF 4 INVENTOR PATENTEU JAN 2 3 I975 SHEET 2 [IF 4 III lNV EN TORSIX-WAY VEHICLE SEAT ADJUSTER BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Inaccordance with the present invention a vehicle seat, preferably abucket type seat construction, comprises a pair of elongated laterallyspaced stationary mounting bases. A carriage is slidable longitudinallyof the bases fore and aft of the vehicle, the movement being effected bya rack and pinion. The rack is formed in the stationary seat supportingbases and the pinion is carried by the movable carriage.

Connected to opposite ends of the carriage are independently operablelift arms connected to the front and rear edge portions of the seatframe. Each lift arm comprises a lever having a toothed sector in meshwith a worm driven pinion. When both lift arms are operatedsimultaneously the seat is raised or lowered. If either arm is operatedwhile the other remains stationary, the seat is tilted.

A single driving motor is carried by the carriage and drives a wormwhich is in mesh simultaneously with two worm gears. One of the wormgears is associated with two independently operable clutches by means ofwhich it may be selectively coupled to the actuating mechanism for oneof the lift arms. The other worm gear is associated with a third clutchby means of which it may be coupled to the pinion in mesh with the rack.

The motor is an electric motor which may be driven in forward or reversedirections and thus, complete control of the position and attitude ofthe bucket seat is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view partly brokenaway, of the seat supporting structure with the vehicle seat removed.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the structure seen in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view with parts broken away, looking in thedirection of the arrow 3 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line v4-4, FIG.3.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line 5-5, FIG.3.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on the line 6-6, FIG.3. a

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view on the line 7-7, FIG. 2.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view on the line 8-8, FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view on the line 9-9, FIG. 8.

FIGS. 10-13 are diagrammatic views illustrating different positions intowhich the seat is movable.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring first to the diagrammatic views of FIGS.10-13, the construction comprises means for effecting adjustment of abucket seat, a portion of which is indicated at 10. The seat isconnected to a seat supporting frame 12 which is connected adjacent theforward and rear edges thereof to lift arms 14 and 16 respectively. Theforward lift arm 14 is pivoted to a carriage which is not shown in theseFigures, by pivot means indicated at 18. The carriage is indicatedgenerally at 19 in FIG. 2. The arm 14 is connected to the forward end ofthe seat frame 12 by a link 20 which is pivoted to one of the arms 14 asindicated at 22 and which is pivoted to the frame 12 as indicated at 24.The arm 14 is provided with a toothed sector 26 in mesh with anactuating pinion 28.

A similar construction is-provided for raising and lowering the rear endof the seat frame 12 and in this case the arm 16 is pivoted directly tothe frame as indicated at 30 and is pivoted as indicated at 31 to thecarriage 19. The arm 16 has a toothed sector 32 in mesh with anactuating pinion 34.

The seat construction is mounted on stationary rails which are notillustrated in their entirety in these Figures, but the rails includevertical flange portions 36 having elongated openings 38 the upper edgesof which are provided with rack teeth 40.

The carriage 19 carries a pinion 42 in mesh with the rack 40 and iseffective when rotated to adjust the car riage 19 from front to rear ofthe vehicle.

The pinions 28, 34 and 42 are all carried by and rotatably mounted onthe carriage 19 and are selective ly actuated by mechanism which will bedescribed subsequently.

Referring now to FIG. 10 it will be observed that carriage 19 whichcarries the pinion 42, is positioned so that the pinion engages theforward end of the rack 40 so that the bucket seat 10 is in its foremostposition. At the same time, the arms 14 and 16 are both swung downwardlyabout their pivot mountings 18 and 31 so that the seat occupies itslowermost position.

In FIG. 11 the pinion 42 has been operated to shift the carriage 19rearwardly so that the pinion 42 engages the rear end of the rack 40 andaccordingly, the carriage 19 is in its rearmost position of adjustment.The lift arms 14 and 16 have not been moved from the positionsillustrated in FIG. 10 so that the seat 10 still occupies its lowermostposition.

In FIG. 12 the seat 10 occupies a position resulting from movement ofthe lift arms 14 and 16 to their upwardly extending position. Thismovement is permitted without binding by reason of the connection of theforward arm 14 to the seat frame 12 by means of the link 20.Accordingly, in FIG. 12 the seat 10 occupies its rearmost position andat the same time is in its highest position of adjustment.

In FIG. 13 the seat has been adjusted from the position illustrated inFIG. 12 by rotating the forward lift arm 14 downwardly while leaving thelift arm 16 in its upwardly extending position and maintaining thepinion 42 in its rearmost position relative to the rack 40. Accordingly,in this Figure the seat has been tilted forwardly and downwardlyessentially around the axis of the pivot connection 30 which hasremained stationary due to the stationary position of the arm 16. Theseat remains in its rearmost position.

The foregoing adjustments are accomplished by the power actuatedmechanism which will now be described.

Mounted on the floor of the vehicle are mounting bases or rails 50 eachof which is provided with carriage supporting brackets or slides 52which may be riveted as indicated at 54 to the upstanding verticalflange portions 36 of the mounting bases or rails 50.

The carriage, indicated generally at 19, comprises longitudinallyextending laterally open channel members 56. Brackets 52 at their endscarry blocks 58 of low friction material which are slidablelongitudinally in the recesses at opposite sides of the channels. Withthis arrangement the carriage 19 is slidable longitudinally of thestationary mounting bases in a generally fore and aft direction of thevehicle. In practice, the base is somewhat forwardly and upwardlyinclined although it may of course be horizontal.

The carriage 19 is in general formed by two laterally spaced portionseach of which is associated with one of the mounting bases, and oppositesides of the carriage are interconnected by torsion tubes 60, 61 and 62.Rigidly mounted on one of the lateral portions of the carriage 19 by abracket indicated at 64 is an electric motor 66 which is adapted to beactuated in forward or reverse direction by manually controlled switchmeans. The motor 66 has an output shaft 68 which as best seen in FIG. 7,terminates in a worm 70 in mesh with worm gears 72 and 74.

Worm gear 72 is associated with a longitudinally extending shaft 76 towhich it may be selectively coupled by clutch means including a clutchmember 78 normally urged by a spring 80 into disengaging position butadapted to be moved into clutching relation by a clutch actuating lever82 operated by a plunger 84 of a solenoid 86.

Similar means are provided for connecting the worm gear 72 to theforwardly extending shaft 88 and comprises a clutch actuating lever 90actuated by solenoid means including the plunger 92.

Similar clutch mechanism indicated generally at 94 is provided forcoupling the worm gear 74 to the shaft 96.

Planetary gearing is provided to connect the shafts 76 and 88 to thelift arms adjacent the forward and rear edges of the seat construction.Details of this gearing and connecting means is best seen in FIGS. 4, 6and 7. The shaft 76 is provided adjacent its rear end with a worm 100received in an enlargement indicated at 102 in a housing portion 104 ofthe carriage 19. Worm 100 meshes with a worm gear 106 which as best seenin FIG. 4 is mounted for rotation on a shaft 108 which extends from thechannel 56 through a wall 110 of housing structure which includes astationary ring gear 112. The worm gear 106 has a reduced portionprovided with teeth forming a sun gear 114.

Mounted for rotation on the shaft 108 is a carrier plate 116 having aplurality of planetary gears 118 carried thereby, each of which is inmesh with the stationary ring gear 112 and the rotatable sun gear 114.Fixed to the plate 116 is the lift pinion 34 previously described, whichis in mesh with the teeth 120 formed on the sector portion of the liftarm 16.

As best seen in FIGS. 3 and 6, the lift arm 16 is pivoted as indicatedat 30 to a depending arm 122 on the seat frame 12.

In order to insure uniform lifting at opposite sides of the seat, a pairof lift arms 16 are provided and they are interconnected by the torsiontube 62 having torsion pins 124 secured to the lift arms and extending ashort distance into the opposite open ends of the torsion tube 62.

It will be understood of course that the construction for raising andlowering the forward edge of the seat is substantially the same exceptfor the provision of the link 20 which permits independent lifting ofthe front and rear edges of the seat without binding.

The arrangement providing for fore and aft movement of the seatconstruction along the mounting base is best illustrated in FIG. 5.Here, it will be observed that shaft 96, as best seen in FIG. 7, isprovided adjacent its rear end with a worm 128 which is in mesh with aworm gear 130 provided on shaft 132. Adjacent its outer end the shaft132 is provided with the pinion 42 in mesh with the rack 40 provided inthe plate 36. Obviously, rotation of the shaft 132 efi'ects longitudinalsliding movement of the carriage l9 longitudinally of the mounting base.Again, in order to provide for equal movement of opposite sides of theseat construction, a pair of rack and pinion units are provided atopposite sides of the seat construction and the rotating pinions thereofare interconnected by a torsion tube in the open ends of which arereceived short lengths of the shafts 132 carrying the worm gears 130and/or the pinion 42.

With the foregoing construction there is provided a very simple andefficient arrangement for effecting sixway adjustment of bucket seatsfrom motor means individually mounted for movement with parts of theseat construction. The motor may be operated in forward or reversedirection and selectively coupled to the means for raising and loweringthe front and rear edges of the seat and the means for effectinglongitudinal sliding of the seat.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. Six-way seat adjusting mechanism for a vehicle seat comprising agenerally horizontal support adapted to be positioned to extend fore andaft of a vehicle, a carriage slidable longitudinally on said support,and a seat frame connected by pivoted lift arms at its front and rearedges to said carriage, a reversible motor mounted on said carriage,said carriage comprising a housing having a driving worm therein, adrive shaft connecting said motor and worm, a first worm gear in saidhousing in mesh with said worm, first and second aligned shafts coaxialwith said first worm gear, independently operable clutches forselectively coupling the adjacent ends of said first and second shaftsto said first worm gear, the other ends of said first and second shaftsextending to points adjacent the front and rear edges of said seatframe, gearing connecting the said other ends of said first and secondshafts to said lift arms, a second worm gear in said housing inmesh withsaid worm, a third shaft coaxial with said second worm gear, a clutchfor selectively coupling said third shaft to said second worm gear, saidsupport comprising a rack extending longitudinally thereof, a pinion inmesh with said rack, and gearing connecting said third shaft to saidpinion.

'2. Mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which the gearing connecting thelift arms to the said other ends of said first and second shaftscomprises planetary gearing.

3. Mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said housing includeselongated extensions which receive said first, second and third shafts.

4. Mechanism as defined in claim 2 in which said housing includeselongated extensions which receive said first, second and third shafts.

5. Mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which the elongated extensions ofthe housing which receive said first and second shafts have enlarged endportions remote from said first worm gear, said end portions havinglateral openings therein which are toothed to form stationary ring gearsof the said planetary gearing.

1. Six-way seat adjusting mechanism for a vehicle seat comprising a generally horizontal support adapted to be positioned to extend fore and aft of a vehicle, a carriage slidabLe longitudinally on said support, and a seat frame connected by pivoted lift arms at its front and rear edges to said carriage, a reversible motor mounted on said carriage, said carriage comprising a housing having a driving worm therein, a drive shaft connecting said motor and worm, a first worm gear in said housing in mesh with said worm, first and second aligned shafts coaxial with said first worm gear, independently operable clutches for selectively coupling the adjacent ends of said first and second shafts to said first worm gear, the other ends of said first and second shafts extending to points adjacent the front and rear edges of said seat frame, gearing connecting the said other ends of said first and second shafts to said lift arms, a second worm gear in said housing in mesh with said worm, a third shaft coaxial with said second worm gear, a clutch for selectively coupling said third shaft to said second worm gear, said support comprising a rack extending longitudinally thereof, a pinion in mesh with said rack, and gearing connecting said third shaft to said pinion.
 2. Mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which the gearing connecting the lift arms to the said other ends of said first and second shafts comprises planetary gearing.
 3. Mechanism as defined in claim 1 in which said housing includes elongated extensions which receive said first, second and third shafts.
 4. Mechanism as defined in claim 2 in which said housing includes elongated extensions which receive said first, second and third shafts.
 5. Mechanism as defined in claim 4 in which the elongated extensions of the housing which receive said first and second shafts have enlarged end portions remote from said first worm gear, said end portions having lateral openings therein which are toothed to form stationary ring gears of the said planetary gearing. 